F.E.A.R.

Prompt 5

Prompt: It was the trip of a lifetime, yet...

A/N: This is set before the story takes place. And is Ember and Ayden centric

Ember smiled as she felt the wind rushing by her fingers as they dangled out of the trucks window. She couldn't resist and let her arm flow in a kind of wave pattern, letting the air flow differently as it rounded the truck, went over her arm, and continued on its normal path.

"Your rather quiet." Ayden said from the driver's seat

"Road trips do the same things flying does for me." Ember shrugged, but winced, the bruise on her shoulder was deep enough to hurt even five months later.

"Calms you down, helps you focus." Ayden shook his head at the young fighter pilot. He'd been shocked when suddenly a fourteen-year fighter pilot was added to his roster, but she quickly proved her worth by completely killing his record on the simulator.

The two were leaving the desert with the rest of the unit, though once they hit the highway they'd all go their separate ways, but Ember and Ayden were going to the beach for her sixteenth birthday.

"You going to tell me about that bruise you tried very hard to hide?" he asked as the others pushed past them on to their own spring break destinations

"How'd you know?" Ember reached into the back for the cooler and the massive bag of Twizzlers.

"Hand to hand combat training. I know what bruises we leave and that isn't one of them. Ember we've got 18 hours of nothing ahead of us, you might as well tell me."

"My dad's parting gift when I left." Ember watched Ayden's knuckles turn white on the steering wheel

"Anything else you haven't told me?"

"Of this summer or my life?"

He'd known Ember for two years, and in that time he'd grown to know her. He knew that she was severely ADD but flying, training, basically anything that didn't require her to focus on one thing for too long helped her hundreds of times better than medication. He knew she had a pretty messed up life, her dad wanted a son but got a girl, her mother is "missing", and she got accepted into Fortress with a full ride, simply because she impressed a recruiter at an arcade. He also knew little things about her, she was ambidextrous but favored her right arm, she was lactose intolerant but if you tried to keep her from the ice cream you'd end up in the informatory. She also didn't know how to deal with people.

He didn't know if it had to do with her ADD or how she was raised, her introvertedness, or something else. But she didn't know how to deal with most people. It took her almost four months to say anything other than "yes sir" or "no sir" to him.

"Which ever your more comfortable with."

"Ok so this summer I spent a lot of time with my Uncle."

"The one that lives in the canyon out here?"

"Yeah, he needed some help with the garden. We explored a lot of the canyons, he even let me drive."

"How'd that go?"

"Let's just say that if we'd been on a road I would've gotten tickets." Ember chuckled, "But please don't make me talk to you about him. I just want to have a good time with my friend."

"Fine. But be prepared my mother will adopt you." He joked

Ember rolled her eyes and lent the chair back as far as it would go. The soft leather welcomed her like an old friend (truthfully with all the road trips they'd been on it practically was an old friend) as she watched the sky and scenery roll by through the back window.

***

"Hey Ember wake up we're here." Ayden gently called

Ember sat up and blinked sluggishly, "Did you let me sleep eighteen hours?"

"Pretty much, sleep helps you heal, and I know you don't sleep regularly."

Ember glared at him, with her sleep clouded blue eyes and wild curly hair he thought she looked rather cute, like a kitten.

"Daddy!" there was a sharp cry and both teens looked up to see little Ian with his brown hair and green eyes toddling towards them.

Ember watched the smile spread across Ayden's face as he got out of the truck and picked up his son. Ian was laughing and giggling as his father spun him around. Ember climbed out of the car and stretched, the kinks in her spine cracking which caused her to release a pleased sigh.

"Emmy!" Ian squealed

"Hey little man."

Ember ruffled his hair as they walked into the house. Ember didn't have a good family that was related to her by blood, but Ayden's family, they willing let her in two years ago when he brought her over for Winter Break. Smiling Ember hugged the woman she called 'mom' .

***Later that Night

Ian had gone to bed and everyone was sitting on the beach talking, or listening to the roar of the water slapping the beach or the crackling of the fire.

"So do you have your driver's license yet Ember?" Ayden's dad asked

"Not yet, I go next week for the final driver's test."

"Just remember, it's not a simulation. A lead foot is a bad thing." Ayden said earning a laugh from everyone

"Not my fault the simulations can't handle me..." Ember mumbled into her hot coco.

"Just remember this." The two teens looked at the General sitting across from them, his stare was up in the sky, looking the stars. Maybe he was searching for the satellite his oldest son was stationed on? "The two of you are destined for something great. Something that will the journey of a lifetime."

"It's what we've signed up for at Fortress General." Ember smiled as he looked at her, he was the only officer that she addressed as his rank.

"It's more than that. Something will happen, something that will fling you both into a war you're not ready for."

"Dad are you ok?" Ayden asked

"I'm fine. Just," he smiled at his two kids (because it might not be blood or on paper but Ember was his), "an old General worrying over the new generation."